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There’s a move afoot to spread urban farming and its healthful benefits to folks without their own plots for planting. Will Allen is gaining national attention for Growing Power, a Milwaukee program that’s growing food in the city for 10,000 urbanites (including schools and low-cost market baskets delivered to neighborhood drop off points); trains want-to-be growers in the ways of intensive farming on small plots; turns organic waste into rich...

Throughout Cascadia—at the city, state, and provincial level—governments are figuring out ways to promote energy efficiency through financial incentives. Most of this has focused on financial tools that would use public dollars for low-interest loans to motivate home and business owners to make capital improvements to save energy. One such program in Oregon, the Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC or ‘Betsy’), has by most measures been a great success. A...

As a May 12 election day nears in British Columbia, the carbon-tax issue continues to cut across the electorate. This weekend, former New Democratic premier Michael Harcourt co-signed an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail that endorses the provincial carbon tax, effectively breaking ranks with his party’s new leaders a few days before the vote. (The piece also calls for a bigger, bolder climate action plan.) New polling results,...

At Sightline, we’ve been reviewing energy efficiency programs lately. We’re particularly interested in programs that are focused on financial incentives for homeowners to make improvements that reduce energy consumption—and ultimately cut energy bills. Vancouver’s One Day program is one example. It looks a lot like Portland’s Clean Energy Fund might look after its been in operation for awhile.  One Day provides certified specialists to conduct an energy audit and make...

Editor’s note: Through May 20, we’re offering a chance at one of three gift certificates for Vancouver restaurants Chambar and Wild Rice to BC residents who sign up for Sightline’s daily or weekly emails. If you’re from BC, sign up and take a minute to let your coworkers and friends know about us. Maybe we don’t say it enough, but we love British Columbia. Home of the world’s most comprehensive...

Last week, BC’s New Democratic Party put a misleading attack on the province’s world-leading carbon tax shift at the center of its long-shot campaign to regain control of the province’s government in the May 12 elections. The campaign officially kicked off today. As I said in October, I hope this argument won’t work.  The NDP—a party Sightline proudly advised and collaborated with during its last term in power—is playing fast...

Utilities are among the few remaining large companies that are relatively solvent and profitable. Harnessing their might to retrofits for all would be a powerful step toward economic stimulus. But most utilities in Cascadia are conflicted about helping their customers save energy. On the one hand, they’re legally obligated to do it. On the other hand, if they do it successfully, they don’t make as much money. Resolving this conflict...

British Columbia’s recent carbon tax made waves in the US. (Sightline’s written about it here, here, and here.) But it’s not terribly popular in BC, as economist Marc Lee of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives explains: While there are plenty of good reasons why the Liberals should get beaten up at the polls, one of the key reasons for the change is the carbon tax, due to an aggressive (if questionable) campaign...

We’re heading into Labor Day Weekend. That means hiking for a lot folks, so I’m reprising some of the ways that Northwesterners can hit the trail without a car. In my two priorposts on this subject, commenters have offered some terrific advice from around the region and beyond. First up, a place of honor for Andrew Engleson over at Washington Trails Association. He’s on the verge of creating a new...

7 in 10. What number could that be? The number of Americans watching Michael Phelps make Olympic history? Surprisingly, it’s the number of Americans who say they’re trying to shrink their carbon footprint through driving less, conserving electricity, and recycling, according to a new ABC News/Planet Green/Stanford University poll. When it comes to global warming, 80 percent of American voters across the country believe it’s happening and poses a threat...